Saddam basks in poll glory

SADDAM HUSSEIN has won another seven-year term as Iraqi president in a referendum in which he was the only candidate, taking 100% of the vote.

All 11,445,638 of the eligible voters cast ballots, said Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council.

"This is a unique manifestation of democracy which is superior to all other forms of democracies even in these countries which are besieging Iraq and trying to suffocate it," he said yesterday, apparently referring to the US.

The White House had already dismissed the one-man race. "Obviously, it is not a very serious day, not a very serious vote and nobody places any credibility on it," press secretary Ari Fleischer saidas ballots were being cast in Iraq on Tuesday evening.

Iraqis in Baghdad could be heard firing in the air in celebration after Mr Ibrahim's announcement of the results in parliament. The government had already declared the day a national holiday, even before the results.

Clusters of men took to the streets, dancing, at the news. Nabir Khaled Yusef, a van driver, said "My feeling is of happiness. This referendum and the 100% shows that all Iraqis are ready to defend their country and leader."

Mahmoud Amin, a retired civil servant, echoed his views. "This is a great day to celebrate," he said. "We are not surprised with the 100% vote for the president, because all Iraqis are steadfast to their president, who has been known to them for 30 years."

It was clear yesterday that the vote was different from what most people know in democratic societies. Some voters stuffed bunches of ballots into boxes, saying they represented the votes of their entire families.

And Mr Ibrahim defended the 100% figure when asked by reporters whether such a percentage was not absurd.

"Someone who does not know the Iraqi people, he will not believe this percentage, but it is real. Whether it looks that way to someone or not," he said. We don't have opposition in Iraq. They are situated in northern Iraq. Inside Iraq, there is no opposition."

A poll among Kurds in northern Iraq who are not under Saddam's control bore out Ibrahim's statementThe poll conducted by the Iraqi Institute for Democracy showed 94.5% of Iraqi Kurds questioned said they would not vote for Saddam. About 3,000 Kurds were questioned on Tuesday. In the last referendum in 1995, Saddam got 99.96% of the vote according to the official Iraqi results and officials had said they expected him to top that figure. The vote was widely advertised not only as backing for Saddam but as a rebuke to the United States, which has been pressing the United Nations Security Council for a resolution that would allow a war to topple Saddam.

Mr Ibrahim referred to the US as the "forces of injustice and illusion," and called Iraq the land of "civilisation and creativity".

Saddam, 65, became president in 1979 in a well-orchestrated transfer of power within his Baath Party.